new yanclone bike with SP200 tranny and GS450 frame

[deepthroatdiesel]

Hi all,

Just wanted to introduce myself. I've been lurking for a while and scheming about building all kinds of diesel bikes for a while but I've finally gotten off my ass and picked up an engine and found a (semi-) suitable tranny.

Got an '80s GS450 missing a head and tons of other bits (but had a clear title!) for cheap about a year ago when I was planning on building an electric bike. Stripped off everything from the frame and had a buddy sell all the bits on ebay. Then I promptly did nothing and let the bike frame age to perfection in the swampy Houston heat and humidity for a year. At least I got an almost free frame titled in my name by the end of it. (Fortunately Texas allows you to apply for "title only" without requiring that all title procedures be accompanied by registration and roadworthiness inspection. For anyone else attempting this, look at TxDOT forms 131 and 130-U, though when you get ready for registration you'll have to do your inspection at that time as well.)

Recently I decided to shelve my electric bike plans (and my hydrostatic-drive dieselbike plans) and start with something much cheaper and arguably saner and so off I went to the local boneyard where I found what I thought was a SP125 bottom end in a frame with no title (would have been a fairly wide ratio 6 speed) but later found out was a SP200 (same gear ratios but missing 6th [.80]). With the help of my buddy we got all the old rusted bolts broken free and got the block out of the frame and broken down for inspection.

After much playing around with re-orienting the 10hp yanclone and the SP200 crankcase I've decided to replace the crank with a straight-through shaft that retains the original gear and extends a bit out farther than the stator coil would have gone and driving the tranny though the left side. (Originally I was looking at sticking a sprocket on the back of the clutchbasket and modifing the Sp200 cases to include a wet primary, like the fellow with the CB350 tranny did.) For me, my arrangement (I hope) will make it much easier to keep the center of balance much closer to the middle and make the bike (and primary) a bit narrower.

As for the engine, my yanclone was brand new, so I've been breaking it in with some cheap conventional oil and I've added on a bypass filter before starting it up at all. I use the TP filter setups from the nice folks at WeFilterIt.com ( http://www.wefilterit.com/FAQ%27s.html ) on all my engines to make them last forever. Plus it seems the strainer "filter" on these little yanclones are crap. When I checked the back of the filter after running the engine for a cumulative 50 minutes I found disturbing amounts of metal shavings that the screen had been unable to capture. Glad that isn't circulating through my crankcase!

Anyhow, I don't have much to show now, but if I can borrow my buddy's camera I'll toss some photos up.

[coachgeo]

Wow..... TX is rocking and rolling in Diesel bike projects. Cool

[deepthroatdiesel]

yup, seems like it. Maybe when everyone has running bikes we can do a gulf coast dieselbike meet?

[coachgeo]

Well most of us are north TX so a coast gathering; say Galvastan's coast, is more than half an ironbut ride from the Dallas.

Gathering would be great. Baby Iron Butt.... not sure were ready for that yet LOL.

[balboa_71]

Deep,
Can you post some pics? I'm up here in N. Taxes as well, and a get together could be down somewhere in the middle of the state, 120 miles south of us, and 120 miles north of you There are plenty of camping lakes in central Texas. One thing about traveling around the state on a sub-freeway powered bike like mine, is finding a state road route where you don't get run off the road trying to get somewhere.... just my $.02 worth. Lets see how your project is coming along.

later,
Cris

[DieselFly]

Staying off the freeway is not a bad thing at all. My bike will go 75mph but I find it alot more fun doing 50-55 and being around fewer 18 wheelers. The only reason I went away from 10hp was hills. The ride to work would have me well below the speed limit on the hills and being passed by alot of cars. Stick to the secondary roads enjoy the view and the smell of cow sh*t

Sean

[coachgeo]

Staying off the freeway is not a bad thing at all. My bike will go 75mph but I find it alot more fun doing 50-55 and being around fewer 18 wheelers. ...

LOL..... you guys dont get it... this is TEXAS; off freeway speed limits are well above 55mph! .... most are 70mph and average speed closer to 75. 55mph is basically UNSAFE anywhere you drive but in town; which opens a whole new set of problems.

[deepthroatdiesel]

Ahh, yeah, I guess it would be a bit of a ride from N. Texas all the way down here....

As for the speed thing, one of my friends (who may be arguably insane) has been driving her max-30/40 mph scooter back and forth from galveston to houston to austin for the past couple of years and has managed to accumulate 20,000 miles doing so. I'm not entirely sure how quite yet, but apparently it can be done with enough planning. I wish Google Maps had an option to plan routes using only FM/CR roads...

Then again, if I could address the cooling issues, it would be neat to do some work on the aerodynamics and try to accomplish what this guy did:
http://www.velomobiel.nl/allert/Recumbe ... orbike.htm
... and maybe eek out a higher top speed with my 10hp diesel.

Well, I stopped by my friend's garage where I'm building this thing but ended up getting caught up running errands, so no photos at the moment, but I promise I'll post some.

[balboa_71]

Deep,
I've got a scooter (Stella 2 stroke) and doing what your friend is doing between Galveston and Austin is truly insane. What got to me up here is I used to enjoy riding out the back roads like Hwy. 4 west of Ft. Worth, but with the gas well drilling, there are these 18 wheeler tankers going hell bent down the two laner's and they well push you out of the way in a heart beat. Trying to stay ahead of them and avoid pot holes is impossible, and like Coachgeo mentioned, speed limits on secondary roads is greater than freeway speeds. Years ago I used to travel down to Burnett on Hwy. 281 which runs parallel to I-35...I could cruse at a nice speed of 50/55mph on my old Enfield Bullet 500, but on the wide paved shoulder. If someone came up on me doing 70, I'd just mover over to the right and let 'em by, which is what others do. There really isn't much safe driving to be had anymore. If I could find routes put together of really crappy pot hole ridden and gravel roads, those would be the way to go. Some time ago, this 'ol boy built a website around his travels across the US doing it all "off road" if you can believe that. Another interesting trip would be to ride old route 66 or "Old Banks Hwy.". I've tinkered with gas/electric powered bicycles since I was 17 and hang around the online forums to see all the new inventions, there are folks that travel great distances on ICE powered bicycles where it's legal, and sometimes not. I wonder how they keep from getting killed by other motorists??? Once I drove back from Carlsbad, NM, on Hwy. 80 in my diesel Jetta, and it was all I could do to keep from getting pushed off the road by trucks hauling cotton, and running 80 mph.

Cris

[Curtis in Texas]

Believe it or not there was a time I use to ride my Bicycle from Fort Worth to Austin and back for a weekend of excercise.

It can be done, and my son and his wife are now into long distance bicycle riding.
Sometimes I sag for them and their friends in their Club on my KLR.
I have a set of flashing stobes on my bike for those tailing duties.
I carry a big ice chest full of cold drinks and bananas too!

Since I don't have my diesel bike built yet you guys let me know when you want to go south and I'll follow and sag ya'll for safety.
Ask me about my trip across America by bicycle some time.

Looking forward to seeing some pictures of this build.

[deepthroatdiesel]

hey guys,
I've gotten my buddy Seb to send me a few pics he's taken of this project so far ...

Until I get around to tweaking the images you may want to right click on each one and open these in a new window...

I can't seem to find pics of the original GS frame, but seconds after finding a trashed SP200 at the boneyard, here I am cutting rusty bolts to free the donor crankcase/tranny from the SP frame


... and with the crankcase finally out and broken apart, let's see how ugly it is inside:



That's an ugly crank! good thing it's getting trashed and replaced with a straight shaft!

gears don't look too bad:


yep, that'll do.


Hopefully I'll manage to dig up a replacement SP125 (6speed) gear cluster at some point...

[deepthroatdiesel]

motor has arrived and (barely) fits in the frame before any tweaking!

(note, the orientation here is backwards-- I'd originally planned on driving the transmission on the right side of the bike through a modified clutchcover, though i'm now working on driving it on the left side through where the stator coil would have been originally)


Off to Chris' welding shop:


cutting/bending the battery/airbox cage forward bars forward and outwards to make room for the fat end of the tranny...


more cutting and bending of the cradle frame:




extending the downtubes with 3" of 3/4" blackpipe from the hardware store...


...looking pretty good

those downtube bends and extensions have given me a ton more space and inclined the engine slightly forward, giving me a bit more clearance from the injection pump in the rear...

added a couple of 2" wide 1/4" thick plates of steel across the bottom for the block to sit on ... now finishing up the extensions and bends for the back of the cradle to allow the transmission to sit in there. (hanging from the top, not sitting on the swingarm).

[Mouse]

Looking cool and I'm interested in how the transmission works out.

But please get a better camera, I'm feeling a bit seasick after after looking at that lot.